Claude pressed his back against the stone wall and tried to catch his breath back. Wiping the sweat from his brow he looked over at the knight, who was almost doubled over. The bard was rather red in the face, partly from having to carry the undead goblin while they jogged.

[Poppy: I can’t believe they’re tracking us v_v]

[Poppy: Whyyy]

The healer shook his head. It had paid off to be paranoid. Just after they had moved closer to one dungeon, Kristov had spotted Brian’s group once again, and so they had run. Not the most spritely group, but if their pursuers hadn’t caught wind of them, then hiding behind this dungeon might buy them some time - even if not shake them for good.

“Well, we’ve certainly got our work cut out for us,” he eventually murmured. “Perhaps we should start praying for a miracle?”

Cross looked up at the sky, his undead eyes aimless.

[Poppy: Don’t worry, Cross. We’ll keep you safe ^^]

The goblin turned to look at her. “It might be too late for that,” he said.

----------------------------------------

“Did you just lick your lips?” Sally narrowed her eyes at the vampire.

He shook his head. “Yes. I’m pretty sure some went straight in my mouth, anyway.”

The zombie grunted and tried to wipe some of the gore from her armor. “We’ll you’re not supposed to taste the poor sap we just exploded.”

“I must have missed the memo.”

“Who would have thought it was a sleeping beauty adjacent arrangement?” Sally shrugged and gave up attempting to clean herself. “True love’s kiss did wake him… well, perhaps it didn’t wake him up. Certainly woke me up, though.”

Theo pulled a face and looked over to the side. “The doors are gone.”

She followed his gaze - and he was right. The two entrances that they had used to get themselves in this chamber were now just brick wall like the rest of the tomb.

“You think that means we goofed this up?”

The vampire shrugged. “I’m not sure there’s a reality where blowing up the body of the person we were trying to save is anything but goofing up the process - but I’m willing to suspend my disbelief.”

Sally rolled her eyes. It would be nice to think that the two prior siblings would somehow know that the pair of them would end up enacting this violent end on the assumed-Pippy body, but that didn’t sound likely. Unfortunately, she was also inclined to believe it, even if it was as far from the truth as possible.

“Good thing he had his soul in the goblin, right? He’s probably just a goblin now. An undead goblin.” She put her hands on her hips and gradually felt better about their mistake.

Theo shrugged again. “I’m just saying. I need blood and here’s some given freely.”

“Were you having a whole conversation in your head trying to convince me that licking this deathbed wasn’t weird?” She narrowed her eyes at him.

“There are certainly grosser things we could use this gore-slick bed for.”

“Fine, just don’t make yourself ill. I will just watch in my peripheral vision so I can pretend to be disgusted with it.” She turned to the side and crossed her arms.

Wasn’t like Pippy was using the blood now, anyway. If it kept the vampire sane and grounded for a little longer, then I’m sure the now-goblin would be fine with it. Assuming that this was Pippy, and that they hadn’t permanently murdered whoever it was.

More important than gawking over Theo right now, was finding a way out of this place. Seemed unfair that their actions had consequences that involved imprisonment, especially if there weren’t any guards with tasty brains handy. Her normal method of escaping things via stabbing could work - assuming this wasn’t a real room, but some magically conjured bubble of existence.

While the vampire slurped away, she went up to the closest wall and ran her fingers along it. Felt like normal stone. She continued to step away from the plinth until she reached the place where the doorways used to be. Rapped her knuckles on the brickwork.

Other than leaving some Pippy-gore on the gray stone, it didn’t seem to make any difference. As if the doors had never existed there in the first place.

Arm drew back, and she lashed forward with [Skeleton Key]. A piece of the smooth brick chipped off, but she didn’t have enough normal daggers to fully pierce through the wall as if it were butter.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Now, that wasn’t fair.

Eyes narrowed, before she closed them in annoyance. She was the Aspect of Life. There was no power in the System that should be able to keep her locked away like this. Screw whatever trials remained. She wanted out.

Balling up her fists, she imagined Poppy and the rest of the Party. Concentrated on their little figures that looked surprised as they were talking with Cross. A bird's-eye view of her former group standing around on one side of a Dungeon while… there were a bunch of other figures making their way through trees on the right. Why was she imagining this?

Oh!

Vertigo rushed through her, and the scent of burning rubber was quickly replaced by a soft lavender. Her feet stumbled across soft grass rather than stone, and she opened her eyes.

“Sally?” Claude opened his mouth in surprise.

“Oh, hey!” She grinned at the group. “Kick Theo from the Party, I will die if I cannot hear Poppy speak.”

Cross folded his arms. “I’m not sure your death is advisable at this stage.”

“Ah!” Sally hopped back away from him. “I’m sorry I broke your real body… Pippy, right?”

“Correct. Although, I would prefer you call me Cross for now.”

She shrugged. “Fine. You want to give me some exposition, or are we going to deal with the assholes following us first?”

The healer grimaced. “You could see them? Are they close? Also… what happened?”

With a brief grin, she took a deep breath and answered.

----------------------------------------

Theo wiped his mouth off on the back of his sleeve. Not the best meal, but much better than a Monster. Wasn’t much chance he’d get to fully drain anybody in this world - so it’d have to do.

[You have been kicked from the Party.]

He pouted and looked over to where Sally had been standing. Didn’t take much to guess that she had found her way out and met up with the rest of the Players she had befriended. So what did that mean for him?

Death had an important role to play in this world still, what with it currently circling the drain. Not to say he had any desire to speed it along, or even to see it fall. Despite the drab tones of his Aspect, what he really wanted was a return to the natural order of things. In taking up the blood of the one who had tried to gain control of the System, he felt a little clued in to what was happening.

The key had been activated. There had been options on the way to use it, but their accidental murder of the one keeping the status quo in place had now set the world off on a single path.

A cage had been unlocked. The fears and uncontrollable power of a System abandoned to those unfortunate enough to have been brought here. A Monster that sought to ruin what remained… but not a champion of Death - because it was chaos, not order.

For Sally to allow life to flourish amongst those remaining here, he would have to help bring death to that which sought to stop her.

Same as always, just a little different.

Now he just had to work out what his next steps were. Go to the group and help them move forward? Or go off on his own to fight against greater odds to make things easier for Sally?

Maybe find some cooler equipment along the way. Level a bit. Time was short, but he would squeeze every advantage from each single second that passed.

Grinning, he drew his hammer down the air in front of him, tearing a rift to somewhere dark and violent.

----------------------------------------

Cross sighed and rubbed at his eyes. “Undone with a kiss. Not quite what you were supposed to do.”

“There wasn’t really any instructions.” Sally shrugged. Most of her problems in her unlife had been fixed with either abrupt violence or smooching the vampire. Seemed apt to continue that trend.

The goblin shook his head. “The idea was to resurrect me, and the three of us would have been able to fully seal the Lurking End so that you could do whatever System mess you were planning.”

“Hold up.” She wagged a finger at him. “Before we get into why you capitalized that like it was a proper noun, how about you tell us about the past and how things ended up this way?”

Claude nodded. “That was what we were about to do before you turned up.”

“Eh.” The goblin looked between each of them. “You do all deserve a full explanation, and more apologies than I am capable of providing. I will remind you that Sally said the group of other Players is heading this way.”

Sally picked the little zombie up by the scruff of his clothing. “Listen, punk. I just became the Aspect of Life and have no idea what that means or what I can do. You messed this world up and there’s now some spooky void coming to eat us. Is it okay if I kill and consume the brains of Brian’s lot?”

“Those fragments don’t all seem related.” Cross winced as she gave him a little shake. “You can’t bring people back to life, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“But I need to keep you alive still?”

He nodded.

“Right.” Sally plonked him down and waved off the Party. “You take him and go hide further away. I’ll see what the other groups want and message you.”

[Poppy: You’ve only just returned! Don’t go dying >>;]

“Don’t worry.” She clicked her fingers and winked. “I’m already dead. Undead. I’m also Life sooo… why are you all standing here? Get lost.”

Begrudgingly, the others made their way away from her, wanting to talk more, but thankfully self-preservation won out over their desire for knowledge.

Which was more than could be said for Sally.

She sighed and walked around the front of the dungeon, hands on hips. Theo hadn’t shown up, but she was sure the goofball wouldn’t be stuck in the room still. He could be single-minded at times, but he wasn’t dense - especially when the stakes were high. No messages, so she’d just assume the best for now.

A glance up to the sky as she continued, and the darkness had spread even further. The mountain and end of the island now completely pitch black, a slight hue of purple to it. It looked as though someone had taken a giant eraser and completely blanked that part of everything from existing.

That was soon to be all of them if they couldn’t stabilize the world or have Chuck steal them away.

Nothing like a little excitement to get her appetite working. She was a little jealous that the vampire had got some licks in, and the explosion hadn’t left a fresh living brain for her to snack on.

Still, when it rains…

“Hey, Brian. Other assorted snacks I didn’t get to know.” She stopped and grinned.

The man scowled at seeing her, the whole group of his township following in his wake.

“Sally. A displeasure to see you. We were actually looking for the rest of your group.”

Her eyebrow raised. “May I ask why?”

“Why, to arrest them, of course.”

Her sharp teeth widened to a grin, as red flame danced in her crimson eyes. “I will give you one singular warning, Brian…”

Grip tightened around her dagger.

“Turn around or I’ll kill you all.”